title: Urinary phytoestrogen levels related to idiopathic male infertility in Chinese men.
abstract: Phytoestrogens (PEs) are naturally occurring chemical constituents of certain plants. The internal PE exposures, mainly from diet, vary among different populations and in different regions due to various eating habits. To investigate the potential relationship between urinary PE levels and idiopathic male infertility and semen quality in Chinese adult males, 608 idiopathic infertile men and 469 fertile controls were recruited by eligibility screening procedures. Individual exposure to PEs was measured using UPLC-MS/MS as spot urinary concentrations of 6 PEs (daidzein, DAI; equol, EQU; genistein, GEN; naringenin, NAR; coumestrol, COU; and secoisolariciresinol, SEC), which were adjusted with urinary creatinine (CR). Semen quality was assessed by sperm concentration, number per ejaculum and motility. We found that exposures to DAI, GEN and SEC were significantly associated with idiopathic male infertility (P-value for trend=0.036; 0.002; and 0.0001, respectively), while these exposures had stronger association with infertile subjects with at least one abnormal semen parameter than those with all normal semen parameters. Exposures to DAI, GEN and SEC were also related to idiopathic male infertility with abnormal sperm concentration, number per ejaculum and motility (P-value for trend<0.05), while these exposures had stronger association with the infertile men with abnormal sperm number per ejaculum. These findings provide the evidence that PE exposures are related to male reproductive function and raise a public health concern because that exposure to PEs is ubiquitous in China.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China. yankaixia@njmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yankai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Minjian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Chuncheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Guangbo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Xiaojin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Daozhen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Honghua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hang
authors.forename: Shoulin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zuomin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jiahao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sha
authors.forename: Xinru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002072:Butylene Glycols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000652:urine; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004032:Diet; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D019833:Genistein / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000652:urine*; D007529:Isoflavones / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000652:urine; D017705:Lignans / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male; D048789:Phytoestrogens / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000652:urine*; D012661:Semen / Q000166:cytology; D055101:Semen Analysis; D013076:Sperm Count; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D002072:Butylene Glycols; D007529:Isoflavones; D017705:Lignans; D048789:Phytoestrogens; C004742:daidzein; D019833:Genistein; C060283:secoisolariciresinol
keywords: BMI; CI; COU; CR; CV; DAI; EQU; Exposure; GEN; Human urine; LODs; Male infertility; NAR; ORs; PEs; Phytoestrogens; SEC; Semen quality; UPLC–MS/MS; WHO; World Health Organization; body mass index; coefficients of variation; confidence interval; coumestrol; creatinine; daidzein; equol; genistein; limits of detection; naringenin; odds ratios; phytoestrogens; secoisolariciresinol; ultra high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry